I often hear people wanting results without effort. They want to have a powerful yoga practice without getting on their mat every day. They want to master calligraphy the first time they pick up a pen. They want to have an eye for photography, without cultivating it. This applies to everything: careers, hobbies, relationships.

Most things in life take work. And often, our first attempts are terribly awful. Results come when we try. When we dedicate heart and soul space to the journey of trying. Success comes from perseverance and has everything to do with staying power.

It has to do with how many times you’ve tried and failed, and then got up and tried again the next day. It is try after try, day after day, that makes or breaks success.

Want to cultivate something in your life? Stay with it for a while, and watch the process change you.

I am convinced the most rewarding things in life are the things we endure for many seasons, when every fiber in our being wants to quit. We stay, and things change. Stay and watch the process of learning something difficult break you down and put you back together new. Its vulnerable and chaotic and sometimes it feels like a pile of ruins. But the ruins? Thats where new life begins.